Cannot decide on a secondary...

Hi all. I'm going with Dual Blades as my primary. That I know. But my secondary is up in the air. I do know I am not going with DA, FA, ELA or INV. I have them on other toons. I've never touched SR, WP or Regen. So it is between those three. Part of me really wants to try SR because I've avoided defense like the plague for a long time. But I hear it can make for a tight build and doesn't shine till later on. I have reservations about Regen, probably because I'm so used to relying on damage resistance. As for WP, I do not know much about it cept that it's a combo of regen, def and resistance? So my questions, in no particular order....do any of those 3 sets compliment DB better than the others? In terms of power choice flexibilty, who reigns supreme? I'd like to pick a lot of attacks(especially my 1st time through, to try them all) without sacrificing mitigation from my secondary. Which of them blooms the fastest? Which are most survivable in general.


To give you an idea of my playstyle-I am not looking to take down AVs. I am not looking to solo much, I prefer teaming on missions. No plans to farm. I do not do the market, therefore I pretty much stick to SOs. (though I just recently started to ATTEMPT to learn the market for the 1st time). I'm pretty poor with no rich alts. So IOs are not much an option...maybe cheap ones down the line. But I'm looking to plan my build for SOs for now. I think that covers it. Thanks for any input. I appreciate it!

Especially on a team environment, you're going to get the most survivability out of /Willpower. Regen with DB/ will result in a lot of redraw whereas /SR, you only get redraw once every two minutes and /Willpower you don't really have to worry about it at all.

The reason I suggest /Willpower over /Super Reflexes for you is twofold. The first is the fact that you said you like teaming and teaming brings more mobs. Law of averages says that with more attacks, more of them are going to end up landing with /Super Reflexes. /Willpower, however, has Rise to the Challenge, which gives you a whole lot of regen based on the amount of mobs around you. This combined with the other mitigation that Willpower gives makes it a top contender. Also, with Super Reflexes, not only is it a late blooming set, but you don't get to a lot of its potential unless you use IOs.

For you, I'd definitely recommend pairing it with Willpower.

Regen definitely offers the most flexibility out of the three, but WP has less redraw and is easier to use, with still quite a bit of room. SR doesn't look like it'd be what you're looking for.

well regen blooms the fastest, but i wouldnt recommend it for DB especially because of the redraw and the combo system of DB,

and SR is probablly the latest blooming set, and sacrifices allot so it can be the best of the def based sets, and speed (except now EleA is comeing to scrappers as'well)

you'd do well with WP since it causes no redraw and is fairly team friendly and self sufficient you have a very weak agro aura in RttC which thrives off of haveing more enemies arround you which will work well with your combos and attacks in general, it comes out to be the jack of all trades type of power set, it isn't the best in any one area but does cover most areas with'out haveing any holes or sacrificeing any perticular area to be better at another area, it also is probablly the second fastest blooming set, it lacks an actual self heal, but doesn't really need it with the regen lvl's it can hit, plus you dont want to have to deal with the redraw of a self heal anyway

Thanks guys. You helped a great deal. I'll be going with WP. And I'll definitely be getting the combos in Dual Blades to try them all out. I also saw this morning that you can choose to pretty much take the WP XF off come I16 which I plan to. Never been crazy about the yellow glow. (I'm even excited to take the XF off of my INV tank too!). I'm quite excited to roll a toon that is completely new to me. I've been playing a loooong time too. Very few sets I haven't tried...

...still gotta roll one of those Kheldians someday, but that's another thread, lol.

Thanks again guys for the advice.

Well an avid fan of WP and Regen I will say either of those two. SR is good too but I won't touch on that. Both my 50 Regen and WP have ups and downs (if you even wanna call it downs, I call it more like differences) that make them good. PvE well both are fine. My WP is about 60% fitted out with what I want and stands up just fine in the Def and Res categories. Plus at 2200 hp constant hes very survivalibity (Mids built of course) My Regen sits at 2400 hp and has less Def and Res but heals incredibly fast. (700 hp from Recon about every 15 seconds) Perma DP (1100 hp initial, 800 Hp rise) Plus with the Regen without IH is about 80 hpsec at all times (pretty sweet!) and then 180 or so hp/sec with IH (2 min downtime, roughly) So thats good. Only time I ever have trouble with groups is a +3 herd capped group (16-17 baddies, 2 bosses or getting the Alpha) but that is easily managable with a quick MoG or something of that nature to handle it. Perhaps Run in with DP on, or hit DP and Recon, etc etc...Just the only thing with Regen is its real clicky, requirs a lot of action, and you can sometimes find yourself without a heal for a few when you need it so plan accordingly. Secondly I noticed when I played my DB to about 35 that he was faily end heavy (at least to exectue your combo string) and Stam and QR are very essential to the build.

Theres my two cents and could offer more but just some quick tips. Good luck with DB.

Considering DB and WP came out at the same time, I often think of them as "thematic", and there are a lot of characters out there with that combo. And as noted above, there is good reason for it: they work well together.

DB/SR is a very tight build, which means it is hard to fit in Tough/Weave, Hasten, Aid Self, or the new Physical Perfection APP power (not saying you need any of those, but lots of people like them). DB/WP is less tight but you still don't have a lot of room for pool powers -- good news is you don't need them.

Doh, after reading your post Possible, I'm having second thoughts. Well, I think I'll stick with DB/WP, as it sounds like a great pairing for me. But Regen has always been the one set that I've avoided because it wasn't resistance based. dunno why, but resistance is like a crutch for me on melee toons. I do want to try Regen someday. I think I may create a Regen scrapper also along with my DB/WP. If I stick to them both for a week or two, I should get a good idea of which I like better. Though with my luck I'll like both. That's not a bad thing, but when I log on, making the choice of what toon to play is always tough. I have too many favorites! Ok, so maybe like 6 favs. But anyway, I got my eye on Claws/Regen or Spines/Regen. I have Spines on my stalker, but skipped a lot of powers that I couldn't see skipping on a scrapper, so I'm missing out on half the set really.

Does Regen perform well with SOs? I can't completely rule out IOs though. I just started playing with the market. I've avoided it completely till recently because I've never really had time to deal with it and it simply didn't appeal to me. I have always gotten by just fine with SOs, since I mainly PvE anyway. I've been playing more and for longer periods recently though, so I'm trying the market out. I've sold a few recipes and salvage as practice. Not excited about the buying process. I've heard that I16 may balance the market prices, so I'm gonna wait till then before I consider buying. Well, that and I need to level up a lot to earn some influence. And there I go off topic and rambling. Sorry. Thanks for the replies.

Stick with the DB/WP...you'll be glad you did! Although, some people do find it boring since /WP is a "set it and forget it" secondary. But, it still rocks! I have 3 Lvl 50's and they're all /WP. ...I think I have a problem...heh

DB/Regen is frustrating because of all the redraw from using your clicky powers from Regen. This really puts a damper on your combos and dps from DB.

DB/SR, as you've already heard, is an extremely tight build. I'm wrestling with one right now but I can't give any good advice on it because mine is based on concept. I'm attempting to rely on the BF - AV - Power Slice chain with some Energy Torrent thrown in for fun...we'll see how it works out.

Possible, your method sounds a lot better than buying enh every few levels. while it's not biggy to take 15-20 minutes to do it, I'd much rather be standing at the tram telling the broadcast channel I'm looking for a team. lol. But on a serious note, thanks for the tips. I really do want to get into IOs. I started reading invention and market guides. Now, I'm not an unintelligent person, but the market stuff just really goes over my head! But that's a whole different topic for another day and forum. I've started leveling my DB/WP. I created my Spines/Regen, but am not sure I'm happy with the concept(yeah I need to have a concept I like, I'm silly like that). Nonetheless, I'll be starting that one tonight. I'm dedicating my night to the 2 scrappers.

FreezeWave...I'm willing to spend bajillions on any toon. But I just don't have it. If I did, I'd spend spend spend. I'm trying to learn the market and what not to earn inf and craft IOs eventually. But that's a slow process. There's always those sites that sell influence, but isn't that a sin or something? Heh.